Katie Boulter on Cannabis Smell Distraction at US Open

Katie Boulter says the cannabis smell drifting over from Corona Park is becoming an opponent in its own right at the US Open.

The British number one, preparing for her first-round match against American wildcard Carol Young Suh Lee, has joined a growing list of players who say the odour is cutting through their concentration at Flushing Meadows.

“You can smell it a lot on the practice courts,” said Boulter, the world number 60. “I'm not a huge fan of it. I know a lot of players have complained on some of the specific courts. I've played on one before and I did smell it during my match.

“It's something that I wouldn't like to smell in the middle of my match. I'm trying to focus and then obviously, it takes you out of the moment and you really don't want to. You don't need distractions. So yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of it.”

Cannabis is legal in New York state for adults aged 21 and over, and while smoking is banned inside the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the smell has long seeped in from the adjacent Corona Park. On still, heavy evenings in Queens, it hangs in the air.

Players have been talking about it for years. In 2022, Australian Open doubles champion Nick Kyrgios complained during a match that a fan smoking courtside was aggravating his asthma, forcing the umpire to ask spectators to stop. Last year, Maria Sakkari flagged the smell to the chair during a set, later making clear she was not using it as an excuse for defeat but simply stating what she experienced.

The United States Tennis Association says it is trying to limit the problem but concedes its reach only goes so far. It works with local police and the parks department to clamp down on smoking at the perimeter, but the boundary between park and stadium is porous in more ways than one.

“While we can't control what takes place off the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, we continue to be vigilant as we maintain this,” the organisation said.

British players have become almost resigned to it. Fran Jones, who qualified on Friday and opens against Poland’s Magda Linette on Monday, recalled her first encounter with the New York haze last year.

“Last year I made a joke about that, in my first round, and I said to the guy, 'is this normal?'” she said. “Because I was on the stadium, and it's next to the park. He's like, 'yeah'. And I was like: 'Well, no wonder I'm playing pretty well.

“This year I'll be like 'no, lock in, lock in!'”

Harriet Dart, who battled past fellow Briton Heather Watson in qualifying to earn a first-round shot at Peyton Stearns, painted a similar picture of the city’s streets and subways blending into the Grand Slam environment.

“I mean it's New York. It's New York,” she said. “I feel like everywhere you walk around, it's everywhere, no? It is what it is. Same for everyone.”

That is the crux of it. For some, it is a quirk of the New York fortnight, another part of the chaos that makes the US Open unlike any other Slam. For others, like Boulter, it is an unwelcome intrusion at the precise moment they are trying to narrow their world to ball, strings, and space.

As the final major of the season begins, the British number one will try to shut out the noise, the bustle and, if she can, the drifting clouds from Corona Park. The question is whether New York will ever let tennis breathe completely clean air.